Warner Springs, CA_12/23/2008_The famous Warner Springs Ranch became famous from the healing sulphured water which bubbles up on the ranch which is at the base of Hot Springs Mountain. The water still flows, but the resort is closed. FILE photo/John Gastaldo/The San Diego Union-Tribune/Zuma Press 2008

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Warner Springs, CA_12/23/2008_The famous Warner Springs Ranch became famous from the healing sulphured water which bubbles up on the ranch which is at the base of Hot Springs Mountain. The water still flows, but the resort is closed. FILE photo/John Gastaldo/The San Diego Union-Tribune/Zuma Press 2008

WARNER SPRINGS 
It has been four months since the iconic Warner Springs Ranch shut down.

The gates to the resort are locked. The golf course parking lot is coned off. Even the town’s lone gas station is closed.

Warner Springs, already a small community in North County’s backcountry, feels much smaller today.

A sale of the 2,500-acre resort to the Pala Band of Mission Indians is now off the table. The tribe still wants to buy the resort, but the $20.5 million offered three years ago is a dead deal.

Meanwhile, after nearly a decade of fierce infighting among the approximately 1,000 owners of the ranch, Chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed in March. Ninety percent of the resort’s employees have been laid off.

When the resort — with its famous natural hot springs, golf course, 250 casitas, tennis courts, equestrian center, airport, spa and two restaurants — will reopen is anyone’s guess.

The homeowners association shuttered the entire resort Jan. 2, and two months later filed for bankruptcy in federal court.

The closure, and everything that led up to it, has angered virtually everyone involved. Lawsuit after lawsuit has been filed.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like the emotion and the drama that has accompanied this property,” said David Gee, president of the homeowners association and the man at the center of the firestorm. “It really is somewhat pathetic to see how much angst and emotion has surrounded this property.”

Much of the situation’s complexity can be traced back nearly three decades.

In 1983, a developer who bought the ranch devised an ownership structure in which 2,000 memberships would be sold. Only about 1,200 ever were, and now about 1,000 people are “ranch owners.” Those memberships are nearly worthless because they can’t be sold, yet members still must pay monthly dues that started 29 years ago at $60 and have risen as high as almost $400.

“What it is, is a long-running conspiracy to break up a community,” said “ranch owner” Bill Johnson.

The bankruptcy filing essentially came about because no one could agree on what to do in the future and to stop lawsuits from being filed. Litigation further delays any sale.

According to bankruptcy filings, the ranch has struggled financially for 20 years. Historically, the occupancy rate for lodging facilities, both for members and the general public, has been about 30 percent.

In 2004 it became known that the Pala tribe was interested in buying the property. This area was the tribe’s ancestral home before the Indians were forced out at gunpoint in 1903 to a reservation off state Route 76, where the tribe now operates a successful casino and resort.

The ranch’s board of directors rejected the potential sale.

In 2008 the tribe offered to pay $20.5 million, and by late 2009, two-thirds of the ranch’s members agreed to the sale — as the association’s bylaws required.

But title problems were significant and legal challenges persistent. One board director said many longtime “ranch owners” have grown old, live outside the area and want to sell. They are pitted against “ranch owners” who live in other parts of Warner Springs and the vicinity who used the ranch’s pool, springs and golf course regularly and didn’t want a change of ownership.

The ranch was shuttered Jan. 2 in hopes of closing escrow with the tribe within a couple of weeks, but that didn’t happen partly because of continuing title insurance issues. The day after the deadline for the sale to go through passed, another lawsuit was filed by a “ranch owner” alleging that the two-thirds approval was secured improperly.

Doug Elmets, a spokesman for the tribe, said the Pala Indians are still committed to buying the ranch. But many things are now in question, including the selling price, he added.

“The tribe definitely wants to regain their ancestral territory while at the same time preserving the nature of the ranch’s intended purpose,” Elmets said.

His group wants to renovate the ranch and reopen it.

Gee, president of the homeowners association, said he thinks the bankruptcy court will order a sale. For that to happen, the resort must go back on the open market, and Gee said national brokers have been contacted.

“The bottom line is, it’s time to convey ownership from our partnership to someone who has the financial resources and the skill set to make it work,” he said. “Pala has the financial resources.”